Brigitte Stamp
‘Autumn’s Here To Stay’ c/w ‘Nice To See You’.
Released February 29th 1967.
Columbia DB9783
‘Autumn’s Here To Stay’ is one of those unusual records that sounds like it could have been made yesterday. This is due, in part, to the absence of any conventional pop instruments.
The song’s timeless, autumnal feel is due mainly to the presence of Stamp’s ethereal, heavily echoed vocals, accompanied only by a nose flute played by Bjorn Caine of Mongo Debussy & The Satans. (On the remastered version of the single - available on the CD box set "Paisley, Hair and Chelsea Boots" - you can also make out the sound of Stamp's manager filling in a crossword puzzle).
After a controversial appearance on the religious ITV pop show ‘Thank The Lord For Pop’, during which Stamp was rumoured not to have worn underwear beneath her coal miner's overalls, it looked like her first single would be headed straight for the charts like an arrow fired from a bow. It was not to be.
After presenting an award at the Beat Monthly awards in Birmingham, she was offered a lift home to London by harpsichordist Steve Maguire of Terry Quick’s Baroque ‘n’ Roll. Maguire, who is believed to have taken strong hashish which he shared with the easily-lead young pop starlet, decided to see if he could get all the way home on the wrong side of the M1 motorway wearing cool sunglasses.
The gay laughter of the young pair soon evaporated as Maguire’s psychedelically customised Ford Anglia hit a seventeen ton oil tanker head-on. Brigitte Stamp was caught in the epicentre of the inferno. It was her birthday...
Still, she survived, but the moment was lost. Recuperating in a vat of cold cream, Stamp was unable to fulfill her contractual promotional engagements and was dropped by her label. "It was very sad", says her then manager Gus Loren. "But it was impossible to get a deal for a dolly bird in bandages".
Maguire, incidentally, sued Stamp’s management for £950 to replace his car. The case was settled out of court, apparently to Maguire’s satisfaction.
Perhaps the true story of Brigitte Stamp will never be known, but the lyrics of her charming song still resonate poignantly today.
‘Since you tossed me aside, like a useless little doll,
I wish that I could see the sun today,
But Frodo puts his hand upon my shoulder
And tells me that the autumn’s here to stay.’
‘Autumn’s Here To Stay’ c/w ‘Nice To See You’.
Released February 29th 1967.
Columbia DB9783
‘Autumn’s Here To Stay’ is one of those unusual records that sounds like it could have been made yesterday. This is due, in part, to the absence of any conventional pop instruments.
The song’s timeless, autumnal feel is due mainly to the presence of Stamp’s ethereal, heavily echoed vocals, accompanied only by a nose flute played by Bjorn Caine of Mongo Debussy & The Satans. (On the remastered version of the single - available on the CD box set "Paisley, Hair and Chelsea Boots" - you can also make out the sound of Stamp's manager filling in a crossword puzzle).
After a controversial appearance on the religious ITV pop show ‘Thank The Lord For Pop’, during which Stamp was rumoured not to have worn underwear beneath her coal miner's overalls, it looked like her first single would be headed straight for the charts like an arrow fired from a bow. It was not to be.
After presenting an award at the Beat Monthly awards in Birmingham, she was offered a lift home to London by harpsichordist Steve Maguire of Terry Quick’s Baroque ‘n’ Roll. Maguire, who is believed to have taken strong hashish which he shared with the easily-lead young pop starlet, decided to see if he could get all the way home on the wrong side of the M1 motorway wearing cool sunglasses.
The gay laughter of the young pair soon evaporated as Maguire’s psychedelically customised Ford Anglia hit a seventeen ton oil tanker head-on. Brigitte Stamp was caught in the epicentre of the inferno. It was her birthday...
Still, she survived, but the moment was lost. Recuperating in a vat of cold cream, Stamp was unable to fulfill her contractual promotional engagements and was dropped by her label. "It was very sad", says her then manager Gus Loren. "But it was impossible to get a deal for a dolly bird in bandages".
Maguire, incidentally, sued Stamp’s management for £950 to replace his car. The case was settled out of court, apparently to Maguire’s satisfaction.
Perhaps the true story of Brigitte Stamp will never be known, but the lyrics of her charming song still resonate poignantly today.
‘Since you tossed me aside, like a useless little doll,
I wish that I could see the sun today,
But Frodo puts his hand upon my shoulder
And tells me that the autumn’s here to stay.’
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